Will consider setting up office in GIFT City, says Saudi Arabia

NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia on Monday said it will consider setting up an office of its sovereign wealth fund in GIFT City to facilitate investments.

Saudi investment minister Khalid A. Al Falih said within the next few weeks, he would send a strong delegation to GIFT City to explore the opportunity. “I will match your offer and commit today that we will open an office in India for investment facilitation...we are talking about bidirectional (facilitation),” the minister said in response to the suggestion from Goyal.

GIFT City in Gujarat is a multi-purpose special economic zone for financial services. He said the delegation will explore either GIFT City or Mumbai or New Delhi for investment office. Al-Falih also offered to set up a digital and physical space in Riyadh for Indian startups to access markets, partners and funding.


“Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will create a joint agreement between our national venture capital fund and their counterpart in India to channel venture capital and funding to startups that will have the opportunity to leverage our two markets,” he said.